[vita]

I found a video while doing a project to my car that shows VERY well how to repaint wheels and it very helpful for comments. take a look!

YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.

YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.

I posted this walkthrough to help people who are going to be repainting the their rims with a rattlecan (spray paint). Im going to be using High Gloss Engine Enamel to paint the wheels for the heat and durability issues that will let hit hold up a little better than your typical spray paint.


Step One:

Get a mask and put it on with some old clothes. There is going to be a lot of fine particles roaming around in the air while you sand. I didnt wear one at first... after 15 minutes I started coughing up some black/grey stuff.... i put an old rag over my mouth my a bank robber. Anything is better than putting this in your lungs. trust me... i now know. haha


Step Two:






Get ahold of a few tools.

You'll need:
Water and a rag - I used it to help wash away the places ive already sanded, plus I could drink out of the bottle. It takes a while, your probably going to start getting dehydrated.
Sand Paper - You can use something like a scotchbrite pad if you dont have any previous paint on the rim. Since I did, I used automotive 120 grit sandpaper. Pretty coarse, but not bad enough where it would destroy the rims. Anything too fine and youll be scrubbing all night.
Hammer and flat head screwdriver - to get the balancing weights off the rims (a needle nose pliers can work too!)

Step Three:
Put up a rim and start sanding! Heres what mine looked like before I started sanding....




Step Four:
Your going to come to the weights. Just put the flathead under, give it some good taps and pry the weight up. its soft metal, you might scratch your rim up a little, just dont hit DOWN too hard on the rim to dig into it and make it unfixable. you can also use a needle nose pliers to get ahold of it and bend it up.



Step Five:
when finished with the front.... flip it over! your only half way done on your first rim...




heres what they look like sanded!




Quick note... dont feel you need to get 100% of all the paint off... if it will stick on the rim it will keep sticking to the rim. the point is to get all the extra off and anything that might loosen up later on. its easier to get paint to stick to paint, than paint to metal.

Step Six: Tape off the tire stem and Prime the wheel. Wipe it down with some water first to make sure nothing is going to get between the primer and metal, then use a primer thats safe to use on aluminum and other metal products. it doesnt need to be "wheel" primer, just one safe on the rims. Its better to do 2 light coats than one heavy coat. if it runs, sand the area, re-wipe it down and put another layer of primer. if it looks like crap now, paint wont help.

Step 7: I did a lip around mine, so I did the base color now (red) that the lip will be. Spray again, in 2 light coats where the bottom layer colors need to be. i used Engine enamel since I want my wheels to be gloss black. If you can, use a paint that is HIGH durability and is resistant to cracking, chips and paint. Ive heard appliance paint works well too.



after spraying one wheel (red)


Step Eight: then, do the taping over the area you want the base color. again, if you want a solid wheel color, dont worry about this step. I used 3m detailers tape to mark the area. GO SLOW and make sure it looks smooth.



Step Nine: then, spray the rest of the wheel with the color of choice. I used again, gloss black to bring out the colors on my car. this is very important *when you spray the paint, how it looks after you spray it is how it will look when it dries. make sure its EVEN and does not start to drip. GO SLOW! GO SLOW! GO SLOW!* it makes the rims come out looking more even. I used 5 cans of black enamel for 4 rims.




You could then apply a clear coat, although I have not yet. Im going to have that professionally sprayed, since I want that to be 100% correct with no problems. Itll keep the paint and the weather on good behavior!


Heres what the tape on the valve will look like when your painting: (you dont want that on the rubber...)



and... the final product!



now do it 3 more times....

[schoff]

I gotta be honest man, i was really surprised how nice those looked for the finished product...at first i was thinking they'd look like shit! Its looking good man, now i wanna see them on the car!!!

[vita]

wont happen. Im searching through all the old websites I was on and looking at some of my posts. I sold the wheels with my Monte Carlo when I got the Cobra. The guy paid me extra for them.


I did the write up about a year and a half ago. Just wanted to post it for people who thought about do this themselves!

[schoff]

ahh damn, they look good though! i always love seeing that little red lip on rims.

[zinc-vert02]

i like luv2cruz's wheels

[mcqueen]

I almost want to pick up a cheap set of wheels some time to do this. You really turned those rims from average to badass

[6ER THEN I 8ER!]

painting wheels is the best way to make a factory setup pop

[outofcontrolreb]

I'm going to try this